Economic and environmental impacts of introducing grain legumes in farming systems of Midi-Pyrenees region (France): A simulation approach

Abstract

The reconciliation of economy and environment is a key factor in achieving sustainability. The European Union wishes to achieve the sustainability of its agriculture in order to produce high quality food materials and to manage energy crisis and the risks related to climate and market fluctuations. These risks can be mitigated by reducing negative impacts of agricultural activities on the environment. Therefore, this study was designed to derive and promote the potential tools to increase the land area under grain legumes in Midi-Pyrenees region (France) where it currently stands at only 1 to 3%. For this purpose modeling chain APES-FSSIMIndicator was used to assess different alternative scenarios of proposition of new grain legumesbased cereals rotations, provision of higher premium on grain legumes, increase in sale price and yield of grain legumes, reduction in price and yield variability of grain legumes and combination of all these scenarios. Results showed that alternative scenario of provision of more premiums on grain legumes was more efficient in increasing the grain legume area than other alternative scenarios, but this would require a level of subsidies much higher than the current crop-specific subsidies in EU. However, in case of combination of all these scenarios, the increase in grain legumes area was maximum for all three selected farms from the study area. In addition farm income was increased by 11 to 26% and energy consumption was decreased by 4 to 9% for the selected farms. It is concluded that grain legumes area in Midi-Pyrenees farming systems can be increased by following the above mentioned alternative strategies.